Something papaya and chutney

What do you do on a Sunday morning when you discover part of the neighbor's papaya tree - with 8-10 green papayas  -  has blown down, into your garden??

Of course; you go and pick it up, as it is considered as yours - since it is inside your garden. (Sort of Mauritian law!)

On the other hand; locals seem not to bother too much about papaya; the birds are usually those who eats it ripe from the trees! :)

I don't know if I should say "sadly" all the papayas were green - not ripe, but raw - so what to make out of it?

Here in Mauritius green papaya (grated) is used in green salad, it can also be used as calebasse, pumpkin etc, boiled in vapor adding onions and other spices, and I also believe it can be used (grated) for vegetable burgers. Green papaya is also used to make octopus tender; it works - I've tried! Add some slices of green papaya in the casserole when boiling octopus.

Cleaning a green papaya.

The skin has to be removed, use a potato peeler. Cut the papaya into two and remove all the seeds.

Removing seeds from a green papaya is "fun"! All those small little "berries' you see on the photo above, are seeds! The best way to remove them is to cut the papaya into slices and remove the seeds with a knife. Ripe seeds are black and usually removed by using a spoon, but a spoon doesn't work in this case - unless you want the seeds all over your kitchen!

Peeled, seeds removed, and in the grater it goes! (Errr... is it called grater?)

Green papaya is quite hard, so better do the job using a grater - if you have.

I had in mind to make papaya jam, but the grated green papaya did not melt, so I don't know what I should call it?! I added brown sugar, cinnamon stick, cardamom, crushed ginger and raisins - a recipe I invented there and then! :))

It tastes heavenly though, here with "Dahi" - yogurt vanilla.

I'm sure it tastes even better with vanilla ice cream! Sigh - I don't have that right now! :)



Some years ago I made mango chutney, which turned out deadly yummy!

I wanted to try it with papaya too. The papaya were cut into cubes and boiled together with onions, raisins and spices.

The best for papaya or mango chutney is to use half ripe fruit - not too hard - not too soft.

The papaya/raisin chutney turned out so yummy!

If you want to try the recipe, click here.